Production experiments on video games

1. Experiments
Georgia Brown

2. Process Here are some screen shots of an animated dog
that I made using Photoshop. Firstly I started off
with a document of 120x80 pixels. I then drew
the dog (bottom right picture) and duplicated it
several times and re-named the layers so I could
differentiate them. Next I created the
background on new layer, I did green at the
bottom and blue at the top to signify the grass
and the sky. I then made a jump and again
duplicated it and spread them out across the
screen to look like an obstacle course. Next I
created the rewards which are bones or
hotdogs. I made them each on their own layer,
as with everything that I made. However I had to
duplicated them and rub out half of them so
that when the dog is jumping over the jump he
could look like he was eating it. I then made the
goal to show that when the dog got to the end
of the course he had completed it. I also made a
‘hud’ at the top to keep track of the points (how
many bones or hotdogs collected). After I had
done all of this I had to animate it so it would
look like it was moving. I did this by making
around 20 slides of the same screen and
selecting different layers to go on each. In the
end my dog jumped over each jump, collected
rewards and completed the course.
https://youtu.be/yKSgVE9K3o4

3. Reflection
What elements of your experiments will you include in your final product?
Overall I really liked my experiment and I feel as though I will use a lot of it’s elements in my
final product. The game as a whole where the dog has to jump over the jumps to get food will
be almost exactly the same as my idea for my final product as I am going to do a horse that
jumps over show jumps to get coins or rewards. Therefore the layout of jumps with rewards
above and a flag will be the same in my final game. The actual animation of the legs where I put
them on different layers worked so well and it actually looked like the dog was moving. I
definitely want mine to look like this as it looks realistic as the dog has joints that more in the
right direction. Another thing that I did when making this game was create a lot of slides. When
I made my advergame I hardly made any slides however I now realise that it was a mistake.
Having more slides allows for much more detail and that will make my game run smoother and
be less jumpy and unrealistic. It will mean that I can change the layers so he objects move only
slightly so that it looks much more real and lifelike. One thing that I will not bring to my final
product however will be the way I made the background. As this was only a simple experiment I
didn’t put any effort into the background and that is why my dog only moves to the end of the
screen and it doesn’t keep going long a moving track like it will in my game. Another thing that I
wont take with me will be the angle of it, as I will have it in a slightly aerial view from behind
the avatar where as this is a side scroller.

4. Process This is a match four game that I made using
Photoshop. The aim of this game is to
match four of the same shapes together
and they then disappear. At the bottom of
the screen are screen shots of the shapes
that you have to match, I simply made
then on a pixel canvas of 120 X 80 pixels
and I used coloured pen to draw them. I
first used the paint bucket tool to fill the
page in pink and then the black pen to
create a box for the game to be played in.
Then I made the shapes and duplicated
them and placed them on the screen in an
order so that there weren’t four matching
together. I then draw the words match four
also in pixels at the top of the screen. I also
made sure that each object was on a
different layer so that I could change or
move them around. I didn’t animate this
experiment as I had run out of time and it
wasn’t necessary. If I had have animated it
I would have created lots of slides and on
each one changed the place of one shape
so that in the next slide they would have to
disappear (like candy crush).

5. Reflection
What elements of your experiments will you include in your final product?
This experiment is not really related to what I am going to be doing and
therefore I will not be taking any of the elements of it into my final product. My
product will be much more complex with many, many more layers and different
elements to it which will make it realistic. Mine will move and the avatar in it
will look much more realistic than these fake hearts and diamonds. Another
way that mine will be different will be because it is not a match four, it will be a
endless runner in third person. With this experiment I didn’t create extra levels
or a menu or any other screen apart from what is in that picture and therefore
when I make my real product it will vary widely as mine will have a section
where the levels go up and there will be a start and fail page.

6. Process
I created this Audio snippet on
the website BeepBox as some of
the music for my video game. It
was really easy to use as you just
had to press the bar in which you
wanted the sound to paly from
and it automatically played in
order when the long bar went
past it. The sounds that I made
were mainly just beep and boop
sounds as I would imagine that is
what would usually be played on
a video game. The sounds would
probably play when you jump a
jump or collect a coin.
What elements of your experiments will you include in your final product?
I will most likely use many of the elements of this experiment in my final product as I will
need this kind of music as a backing track and as sound effects. Since I cannot use copyright
music I will have to create it myself and this is the easiest way to do that as you can export it
after wards and as .mp3 file and I could put it in over my video on PremierPro.
Reflection